The Doctor, the General, and the Hidden Paw
by WishIWereAShifter
Summary: What happens when the TARDIS crashes in South Dakota, right by the Napoleon of Crime's hideout? Rated T just to be save.
1. To the hideout!

**A/N: This is my first story, which probably explains why this chapter has the same title as the entire work. I'm still trying to get a handle on the site. Hope you like it! Please Read and Review! That is all I have to say.**

Running.

Thanks to Novik, that was my life anymore. 'Course, it was my fault...If I hadn't asked for him to know where I lived...

I shifted, dark fur sprouting all over my body as I fell onto all fours. The badlands weren't the best place for a cat, but they would've been worse for a human. As I kept running, I reflected on the number of people I had made enemies with:

Daniel...

Novik...

Mac.

Okay, the last one was my sister's fault.

I should probably back up and explain this from some sort of beginning...

* * *

This all started sometime in October. Zetta, a werefalcon as well as being my girlfriend, had finally reunited with her brother, Macavity, who, as might be expected, was a werecat. Would've brought me along, except...

"No humans."

That phrase repeated itself in my head for weeks. All the time, just "No humans...No humans..."

I broke then. Did everything I could to change what I was...

Spells. Meditation. That kind of thing. I even barreled into the fence about five times trying to shift.

Nothing worked.

Finally, I heard one of Macavity's henchcats was to be banished-Novik. I asked Zetta to tell him where to find me, that I could take revenge on him myself.

Only...

He found me.

I got what I wanted: a chance to fight him, as well as the shifting powers I was after. I turned into a pure-black Cat, and my alias for that form was SD. Though I liked to say it stood for Sven Dominic, it actually stood for Scott Daniel. Novik ended up nearly killing me...

I ran.

I stayed in either full Cat form or half-form most of the time, needing the speed. I shifted to human only to find something to eat when I was tired of mice and scraggly rabbits. I managed to make it to South Dakota, and the badlands, where I expected the hideout to be, when I felt talons digging into my shoulders, the peculiar creature above me lifting me into the sky.

I stayed silent, shocked, for quite a while. The first thing out of my mouth when I found my voice again was "...Zetta?!"

"Who did you think it was?" she shot back. "Jace?"

I had to admit she had me there. She was in half-form, so picking up a little kitty like me wasn't a challenge at all for her. "Won't Mac be angry that you're out here?" I asked, looking up at her. "I mean, it doesn't look like you have an escort..."

"I'll deal with Mac when we get there," she replied impatiently. "For now, shut up and keep an eye out for humans."

I did as she asked, knowing that we'd be an odd sight for any passers-by below us. Finally we reached an inconspicuous building that I assumed belonged to Macavity. Zetta shifted to full human, and I nearly followed suit before she stopped me halfway. "To make sure they know what you are," she told me. "Just stay in that form."

I shrugged and followed her into the hideout, nervously fiddling with my tail. Stopping at the door to Macavity's office, Zetta knocked, which was responded to with an irritated "What do you want?"

"It's me, you yutz," she called through the door. "And I've brought someone...I found Scott in the badlands, trying to make his way here."

"You did wh-" Macavity sighed. "Come in, then."

Zetta opened the door, and I stepped into the office. "H-hello, sir," I stammered, bowing hastily. He just gave a sinister grin.

"So good of you to join us."


	2. Crash of the TARDIS

I gulped under Macavity's gaze. I had been told he was frightening, but nothing could have prepared me for what I beheld.

Not that he didn't look much the way I had imagined. Dark face, wild headfur, chaotic zigzag stripes all over him...

No, what truly scared me was the way he was looking at me, as though I were a mouse he was eager to stalk and kill. I shivered, trying to hold his eyes as long as I could, the air around us almost crackling with the tension.

"So you figured it out then?" he said quietly, gesturing to my unnatural half-form. "You're one of us?"

I nodded silently. "Just call me SD," I told him. "I'd much prefer that to Scott..." I looked around for another one of Zetta's friends, a Persian by the name of Regio. "Where is everyone then?"

Macavity scoffed. "You expected them to be crowding up my office? If you really want to meet the others, then shoo! Go, mingle!"

Taking this as a dismissal, I hurried out of the office, Zetta right behind me. "Regio's probably trying to play Army of Two," she told me. "I don't know about Jorn..."

"Lead the way then," I replied, smirking. "Hopefully he still doesn't want to kill me..." I shifted back to full human, hoping Regio would know who I was even if he'd never seen me before.

Turned out he didn't. When we walked into the room, he was indeed playing Army of Two. He saw who had walked through the door and paused the game, standing up. "Hey, Zetts! What's-" He saw me and stopped. "You brought a human here?"

"Hey, genius? It's Scott," I said to him. "And no, I'm not a human." I shifted to Cat and back. "But I'd prefer SD."

"You know who I am, I assume." He held out a hand. I shook it before hearing a loud CRASH!

"...What was that?" I asked apprehensively, not knowing or caring who would answer. But the two faces around me looked just as clueless as I was.

"Let's check it out," Zetta said excitedly, shifting to full falcon before jumping out the window. After a quick surveillance flight, she returned and shifted back to half-form. "It's a blue police box," she told us, looking even more confused. "How it got here is beyond me, though..."

I rushed to the window to find she was correct. It was indeed what appeared to have been a flying blue police box. From England. "But that's..." I was about to say "impossible," but looking around at the half-falcon, half-human standing next to me, and the man who could turn into a Cat on the other side, the word caught in my throat.

As we watched, the doors to the box opened, and out stepped a very disoriented-looking man. "Excuse me, but does anyone know where I am?" he asked in a thick British accent.

"Tell us who you are first," Regio snapped. "Then maybe we'll answer your question."

The man looked at him with a smirk before replying. "I'm the Doctor," he said simply.

Zetta and I exchanged a confused glance.

"Doctor _who?!_"


	3. The confrontation and the General

**A/N: I may not update for a while, as rehearsals are starting soon. This is a fairly interesting chapter in my opinion, as it shows the tension between Mac and the Doctor. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them! And, as always, enjoy, R&R.**

The Doctor looked at us strangely, mostly Zetta, as she was currently a bird person.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard of me? I'm _the_ Doctor."

I narrowed my eyes and looked back at him. "Don't you have a name?" I called back.

"Hmm...Nope," he replied.

I sighed. "Regio, Scott, and Zetta," I told him, gesturing to whoever I was introducing at the time. "I'd tell you where you are, but I don't know that I can."

Regio rolled his eyes. "You're at Macavity's hideout," he said to the Doctor. "Genius here just arrived himself."

"I'm sorry-did you say Macavity?" The Doctor looked very confused. "The Hidden Paw?"

"_Yes,_" I sighed. "I thought the same thing when I found out. I'll be right back," I told the other two, walking out of the room. I was partially going to notify Mac of the newcomer, and partially trying to put distance between myself and that window.

"Yes, what do you want?" the Napoleon of Crime snapped when he heard the knock on his door. "I can't work with this many interruptions..."

I poked my head in the doorway, ignoring his annoyed scowl. "We've got a bit of a situation," I reported. "Mainly, what appears to be a flying police box."

At this Macavity looked quite alarmed. He stood bolt upright, so fast that his chair fell over. "Where?" he asked, deadly control in his voice. I led him towards Regio's room, where Zetta and Regio were still glaring down at the Doctor.

Macavity took his place at the window, looking down at the crash site. "What exactly, might I ask, are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same question," the Doctor shot back. "Last I heard, you were somewhere in London..."

Mac's glare deepened. "I don't know where your intelligence comes from, _Doctor_, but you seem sadly misinformed. I've been here my whole life." He sighed. "Where were you headed?"

"That's just it," the Doctor replied. "I don't know. The TARDIS seems to be malfuctioning, choosing destinations all on its own...I assume there's something here I should take care of?"

Macavity's tail twitched in irritation at the thought. "I assure you the only thing you might have to worry about is me," he said coolly. "And if you're planning on waging any sort of battle with me, I suggest you bring some SERIOUS backup."

"Oh, I have," the Doctor told him. The doors of the blue box-the TARDIS-opened, and out stepped someone I'd known since before this whole madness started: the General.

He wasn't much to look at, really-a couple of years younger than me, but built rather like a football player. I happened to know, however, that he had recently received his black belt at the taekwondo dojo we had attended together.

"Let us see how this plays out," the Doctor said with a grin. "The Doctor, the General...and the Hidden Paw."


	4. I Will Fight

"I've told you already," Macavity insisted, for the fifteenth time. "That's not my job. Ask Regio."

"I did," I argued. "He said you were the better teacher."

The flattery seemed to faze him a little, and it took him a second to regain his composure and come up with a retort. "Doesn't change the fact that he's the weapons instructor." He turned around, staring out the window, at the wreck that was the TARDIS. "Why do you want to learn how to fence anyway?"

I shrugged. "You'll need all the help you can get. You heard what the Doctor said. He'll fight to the last man. We should match that."

"Ah, but you aren't a man, are you?" he countered, and I could tell from his tone he was smirking. "I have no doubt you're a wonderful fighter, Scott. But if you were to get hurt, or worse, Rozetta would be heartbroken."

I let that sink in, and anger filled me when I realized what he had just told me: I would stay out of this battle. Never mind the fact that I had something to settle on a personal level. Mac was planning on keeping me locked in Zetta's room while they went gallivanting off doing who knows what, actually _doing _something. While I got to sit there and play Army of Two. Just perfect.

"Jemima was right to leave," I said quietly, anger bordering on hatred creeping into my voice. "You make a show of knowing best, when you, Macavity Ixin, the great Napoleon of Crime, don't know SQUAT about people's needs." My ears flattened and my tail lashed from side to side in fury. Giving one last hiss, I shifted to full Cat and stormed out the door.

Once I got to Zetta's bedroom, however, I had deflated like a week-old balloon. I leapt up onto her bed and nuzzled against her thigh, muttering about losing Macavity's respect for good. In response, the falcon girl gave me a comforting scratch behind the ear, releasing from me an unexpected purr.

"I will fight," I vowed. "If Macavity allows it or not, I have a score to settle with the General. Mark my words, if you win this battle, you will win because of me."

With that happy thought, I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.


	5. Mischief and Mishap

My arrival at the hideout caused quite a stir. I had to introduce myself to almost everyone there, most of whom greeted me warmly, except for two: a girl about my age who just glared at me and said something about hoping I got a furball, and a little calico werecat around ten who took one look at me, grinned devilishly, and bolted. Yet when he disappeared, I heard two giggling voices rather than one fading to inaudibility...

I had the hardest time remembering everyone's name. The hairball girl was a squirrel shifter by the name of Myra, and I heard quite a few names that were even more strange: Jorn, a gray tom. Paningua, Jorn's father. Bav...something. Bavmorda, I think-an unusually spotted golden tabby she-cat. Cortana, a black-and-silver queen who tried to flirt with me until Zetta showed up. Trachiniae (everyone just called him Trash behind his back), a white tom with heterochromia. Halcyon, a dark brown tom. The rest just sort of blended together. I could understand why Macavity was so irritated, if he always had to deal with keeping track of all of these. It'd be enough to drive anyone insane...

I spent the next while getting myself acquainted with the routine: magic lessons with Macavity and Gian in the morning (something I had a particular aptitude for), general training in the afternoon (something I wasn't nearly as good at), and time to do pretty much whatever until the next morning (when I wasn't sleeping, I was usually blowing stuff up with magic). I also spent as much time as I could investigating those two calico kids. I had gotten their names from my observations: the boy was Mungojerrie, and the girl (who I assumed was his sister, as their voices were the only way for me to tell them apart) was named Rumpelteazer. They both had very thick Cockney accents, which surprised me if they had been at the hideout as long as it seemed they had.

But they weren't the only ones getting themselves into trouble. Zetta and I were good at it as well. She walked up to me one evening with an evil grin, and flat-out stated:

"Let's go take a look at the TARDIS."

My jaw dropped. "You mean...disturb the Doctor? Are you sure that's a good plan?"

She just shrugged. "It was 'Jerrie's idea," she admitted. "He and his sister will be with us."

"Great," I muttered. "Just what I need. To babysit a couple of ten-year-olds." I sighed. "All right then. Let's go."

The notorious couple of kittens appeared out of nowhere and tackle-hugged me, grinning from ear to ear. We all shifted to our respective Animal forms and formed a sort of caravan through the halls. What a sight we must have been: three Cats, two of whom were identical and obviously kittens, with a peregrine falcon flying low above them. Finally we emerged from the building and crept towards the blue police box in the growing darkness. One of the kittens, however, got overexcited and pounced ahead of the group, thus reaching the open door of the TARDIS first. "It's big in 'ere!" the kitten, who I then identified as Mungojerrie, shouted, causing me to frantically shush him.

Of course, he ignored me and uttered one of the scariest things you will ever hear a little kid say in their lives:

" 'Ey, whot does this do?"

_CRUNCH!_

Rumpleteazer looked at me, wide-eyed. "Tha' didn' sound good," she said softly. "Oi'd bettah go 'elp 'im..."

"Stay with us," I told her, picking up the pace. "Let's go see how much your brother broke the TARDIS."

When we reached the door, it turned out Mungojerrie had hit the switched that closed it...on his tail. Whether the door or his tail were broken, I wasn't sure.

"Unlike Screwloose, he is not ready to be on his own," Zetta muttered, studying the situation. "Tail's fractured. Can you heal it?"

"I can if I can get the door open," I told her. "Hey, 'Jerrie? Could you hit that switch again?"

"Oi can' foind it!" he complained. "Ge' me outta 'ere...moiy tail 'urts!"

"Got that," I grumbled, and studied the door. "W'peh." Open. The door seemed to listen, and folded itself so it was no longer on Mungojerrie's tail. "You've got a fractured tail," I told him. "I can heal it, but you're going to have to hold still." The kitten obliged long enough for me to hold a hand over the break. "Qe irisva," I said softly as the kink straightened itself. "How's that feel?"

"Thanks!" 'Jerrie said with a grin. "Whot was tha' command ya used on the door?"

I repeated the incantation. "It means 'open,'" I told him. "An Ancient Egyptian spell."

Another voice joined us: one I recognized, but hadn't anticipated.

"What are you doing in here?" the General demanded. "You could very well have broken the TARDIS."

"I know, I know," I told him. "Ask 'Jerrie here."

"S-sorry, sah," the young calico mumbled into his tail. "Won't 'appen again..."

"Go on, get some sleep," the General told us. "You'll need it."


End file.
